People's impression of a Care Home

My father did not want to go in to a care home however well they got treated.
He visited a friend who had dementia and I had to take him in to the pub for a glass of brandy on the way home. I never knew him to drink brandy before but he said if he was in one of those homes he would just go mad.
He helped with house chores until about a month before the end of his life and used a laptop.
A friend of his said people were looked after very well but he just wanted to be with his family. He also thought a care home would be a waste of money in his case.

My sister and I looked at a couple of care homes for our mother recently. One passed the smell test on entry and the first thing we were asked about was our mother and what she needs. Then we were shown around and were impressed with the whole set-up; the chairs in the sitting room were not all round the walls, the bedrooms were personal, not uniform, the staff were smiling and the residents looked cheerful and interested in what was going on. The other smelt of air freshener (2 days later my jumper still had that horrible smell) and although the residents looked happy enough, the place just didn't look organised. Most importantly, our mother was never mentioned.